1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a shift lever apparatus whose shift position is changed by moving of a shift lever.
2. Description of the Related Art
A gate-type shift lever apparatus is equipped with a shift lever. When the shift lever is pivoted in a vehicle front-rear direction, a vehicle left-right direction or the like, a shift position is changed. Shift positions may be, for example, a ‘D’ shift position, a ‘4’ shift position, a ‘3’ shift position, a ‘2’ shift position and an ‘L’ shift position.
For example: when a shift lever is to change from a ‘D’ shift position to a ‘4’ shift position, it is necessary for the shift lever to be pivoted in a vehicle rightward direction; when the shift lever is to change from the ‘4’ shift position to a ‘3’ shift position, it is necessary to pivot the shift lever in a vehicle rearward direction; when the shift lever is to change from the ‘3’ shift position to a ‘2’ shift position, it is necessary to pivot the shift lever in a vehicle leftward direction and the vehicle rearward direction, in that order; and when the shift lever is to change from the ‘2’ shift position to an ‘L’ shift position, it is necessary to pivot the shift lever in the vehicle leftward direction.
Incidentally, a shift lever apparatus 70 shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, which is currently being developed, is equipped with a case 72. A cylinder-form assembly portion 74 is formed in an upper portion of the case 72. Cuboid-form penetration holes 74A are formed in diagonally upward portions and diagonally downward portions of the assembly portion 74. The penetration holes 74A are formed in square shaft forms and oppose one another.
A slider 76 is provided in the case 72. The slider 76 is slidable in the vehicle front-rear direction. An intruding shaft 78 is integrally provided at the slider 76. The slider 76 protrudes to outside the case 72.
A link 80 is disposed at the vehicle leftward side of the case 72. A cylinder-form assembly shaft 82 is provided at an upper portion of the link 80. A pair of engaging protrusions 82A are provided at a distal end of the assembly shaft 82. The engaging protrusions 82A are formed in cuboid shapes and oppose one another.
The link 80 is rotatably assembled to the case 72 by inserting the engaging protrusions 82A through the penetration holes 74A, thus passing the assembly shaft 82 through and fitting the assembly shaft 82 into the assembly portion 74, and then rotating the link 80 through a predetermined angle in a direction opposite to the direction of arrow A in FIG. 6. In this structure, rotation positions of the engaging protrusions 82A do not coincide with the penetration holes 74A within a range through which the link 80 is rotated by pivoting of the shift lever, which is as described below. As a result, disengagement of the assembly of the link 80 to the case 72 is prevented. In addition, a torsion coil spring 84 bridges across between the case 72 and the link 80, and the link 80 is urged by the torsion coil spring 84 in the direction opposite to the direction of arrow A in FIG. 6.
A first arm 86 is provided at the link 80. The first arm 86 extends in a vehicle forward direction. A second arm 88 is also provided at the link 80. The second arm 88 extends in the vehicle leftward direction. A switching portion is integrally provided at a base end side of the shift lever, in correspondence with the first arm 86 and the second arm 88. The switching portion moves integrally in accordance with the pivoting of the shift lever.
When the shift lever is changed from the ‘D’ shift position to the ‘4’ shift position, the switching portion moves in accordance with the pivoting of the shift lever. As a result of this movement of the switching portion, the first arm 86 is displaced downward, and the link 80 is rotated in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 6. When the shift lever is changed from the ‘2’ shift position to the ‘L’ shift position, the switching portion moves in accordance with the pivoting of the shift lever, and as a result the second arm 88 is displaced upward and the link 80 is rotated in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 6.
A long, narrow intrusion hole 90 is formed at a lower portion of the link 80. The intruding shaft 78 of the slider 76 intrudes into the intrusion hole 90 slidably. Consequently, when the link 80 rotates in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 6, the slider 76 slides in the vehicle rearward direction.
In this structure, the shift position of the shift lever is detected by detecting a pivoting position of the shift lever in the front-rear direction and a sliding position of the slider 76.
However, in this shift lever apparatus 70, when the link 80 is assembled to the case 72 as described above, it is necessary to rotate the link 80 in the direction opposite to the direction of arrow A in FIG. 6 after the engaging protrusions 82A have been inserted at the penetration holes 74A and the assembly shaft 82 has been passed through and fitted into the assembly portion 74. Therefore, if the link 80 is assembled to the case 72 after the slider 76 has been assembled in the case 72, the intruding shaft 78 of the slider 76 will abut against the link 80 when the link 80 is being rotated in the direction opposite to the direction of arrow A in FIG. 6. Consequently, the intruding shaft 78 cannot be fitted into the intrusion hole 90 of the link 80.
Therefore, it is necessary to assemble the slider 76 to the case 72 and to construct the case 72 after the link 80 has been assembled to the case 72. Thus, the link 80 cannot be assembled to the case 72 in steps of an assembly process of the shift lever apparatus 70 (a process for assembling the shift lever, the case 72 and the like) that are subsequent to assembly steps of the case 72. As a result, a number of types of a unit of the case 72 and the link 80 in the assembly process of the shift lever apparatus 70 is a number of types of the link 80 multiplied by a number of types of the case 72. Consequently, the number of types of assembly components (units of the case 72 and link 80) is large, and operations for assembly of the shift lever apparatus 70 are made more complicated.